Spain national paper stops printing in crisis

Spanish national newspaper La Gaceta has scrapped its print edition, a spokeswoman said on Monday, as it fights to survive a financing crisis in the recession-damaged country's media.

"The paper edition has been closed" since Friday, said a spokeswoman for the strongly conservative newspaper, which was founded in 1989 and employs about 60 people.

"The newspaper will continue, but online -- that is what we will focus on," the spokeswoman told AFP.

She was unable to say what the impact would be on jobs.

La Gaceta launched as an economic paper in 1989 before converting to general news, part of the Intereconomia media group that also runs a television channel and a radio station.

It is a high-profile casualty of a finance crisis that has shut down hundreds of Spanish media organisations over the past five years, during which Spain has gone through two recessions.

In November, authorities in Valencia shut down the indebted regional broadcaster RTVV, which employed 1,700 people.

The Madrid Press Association, a journalists' body, says 284 media organisations have disappeared and 11,151 jobs been lost in the sector since 2008. That includes 73 media organisations and 4,434 jobs in 2013 alone.

The Federation of Journalists' Associations of Spain estimates the job losses at 10,500 since 2009.